Epidendrum mantis-religiosae Hágsater 1988 GROUP Difforme

Photo by © Hagsater and The Epidendra Website

TYPE Drawing

TYPE Drawing by © Jimenez, Hágsater & E.Santiago and The AMO Herbario Website

LATER THROUGH LATER

Common Name The Praying Mantis Epidendrum [refers to the positioning of the lip which resembles the forelegs of a praying mantis]

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in Panama in montane rainforest at elevations of 500 to 700 meters as a miniature sized, warm growing epiphyte with simple, cane-like, somewhat laterally compressed, flexuous stems carrying 5 to 8, all along the stem, subcoriaceous, smooth, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, unequally bilobed, margin entire leaves that blooms in the later winter through later spring on a terminal, occuring only once, sessile inflorescence arising on a mature stem with shorter than the ovary, triangular, acute floral bracts and 1 to 2, resupinate, successive opening flowers.

"Epidendrum mantis-religiosae belongs to the GROUP Difforme which is characterized by the caespitose, sympodial plants, fleshy, pale green to glaucous leaves, apical inflorescence, sessile, rarely with a short peduncle, single flowered to corymbose, without spathaceous bracts, fleshy green to yellowish-green rarely white flowers. The species can be recognized by the narrow, elliptic to lanceolate leaves, 1 to 2 successive, green flowers, linear-ligulate, single veined petals, the vertical, ovate lip bent downwards at the base, forming an acute angle wlth the column and the clinandrium-hood slightly surpasslng the column, entire, erose; the flower is reminiscent of a Praying Mantis, and thus easily recognized among the GROUP Difforme. Epidendrum atwoodii Hágsater & L. Sanchez, endemic from the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica has linear to lanceolate leaves, a greenish white flower, the ovary dilated just behind the perianth, petals adnate to the basal third of the column, the flabellate lip 3- lobed, and the prominent clinandrium-hood fimbriate." Hagsater etal 2007

Synonyms

ReferencesW3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orquídea (Mexico City), n.s., 11: 27 Hagsater 1988 drawing/photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1527 Atwood 1993 drwawing not; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Icones Orchidacearum 3 Plate 311 Hagsater 1999 see recogntion section; Icones Orchidacearum 9 Plate 954 Hagsater & Sanchez 2007 drawing fide;

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